a shot at shiratori
by So Guhn
Summary: Lelouch and Kaguya wait out the rain. pre-series fic. Lelouch x Kaguya.


_a shot at shiratori_** ; PG - gen/romance - Lelouch x Kaguya**

This was his third time at trying to get on the bus.

He needed to get into town. It was raining and walking through the rain, personally had not been ideal. There were three possibilities that Lelouch had come to the conclusion. The bus driver might be the same, might be a different bus driver due to sick leave, or a different bus driver due to the later one getting fired. Highest possibility listed first and descending. The last time he had tried to get on a bus he had been kicked off when the bus driver caught his face and realized that that dark hair of his certainly did not belong to a Japanese. It was rather troublesome to buy a box of something only for it to get soggy in the rain as you returned home. The vegetables stayed fresh though. He was hoping unlisted and improbable possibility number four would take the kicker: a different bus driver due to scheduled rotation. Of course in this area that possibility was the most unlikely. The driver never changed due to that. Lelouch didn't believe in fate either, he was just trying to rely on karma.

And today, it would be nice if he could get on a bus. Because he is late. If he didn't hurry, if he walked out in the rain it would probably get ruined. (Suzaku is with Nunnally now though. By this time, so it was alright if he didn't make it exactly on time. But still...)

What struck Lelouch as odd was that she was there waiting too.

Sumeragi Kaguya.

Didn't she have a special escort, a car or something to take her home? What was she doing this far out and in this weather no less? Every now and then he would catch her peeking from the edge of her hair, to look at him.

After twenty minutes of waiting they realize the bus is late. It had to go up a steep hill, it could have been- Lelouch judged from the amount of rain- that there could have been some flooding where the bus usually went through that prevented it from climbing up to here. It was lucky that there was a built enclosure that shielded them from the rain. Dark forestry lined against the dirt road. It was just the two of them. He shifted the bulk of his purchase, trying his best not to crush them, yet keep them safe under his arms, his thin jacket. Kaguya peeked over at his again, giving the bulky paper bag a look before looking back up to the side of his face.

Only this time he was looking straight at her.

She felt herself blanch.

Kaguya expected rudeness to meet her rudeness, demands to her of why she kept looking and so forth, all these little sort of things racing in her mind. Yet, he didn't look angry at all or annoyed rather-

"The bus sure is taking long, don't you think?"

-he is bored, just as she at waiting. He even smiles at her. She likes the way his brow gives a little quirk as he speaks and her own brow failingly tries to mimic it.

"...yes." She replies. It bothers her that his Japanese is good. She frowns. When did he learn? School?

He reads her hesitance in answer as displeasure on her part for speaking with him, and mentions something about the potential cause of why the bus is late, dragging out the syllables as if to imply that he had nothing else to say... but Kaguya wants to know what else he has to say. Her hot-headed cousin and husband to be, Kururugi Suzaku always vanished into that little "fort" of his, a storage room that had been transformed into those thrown away Britannian royalties' home; even now when they were there. There had to be something about them she didn't know that made them more appealing (than her?) that kept Suzaku going there time and time again. The Britannian prince's eyes still on her, he looks away seconds later.

Ten more minutes pass.

"Do you..." she starts, almost looking at her feet, but, he was friendly wasn't he? And actually polite? Very the opposite of Suzaku now that she thought of it, maybe that was why Suzaku liked being around him, as they did say opposites attract- she didn't like where her thoughts were going and hurriedly continued what she was saying, titling her head, her face, even her body to him to finish, delightedly twisting about her fingers, "Shall we- play a game?"

"Game?" he asks, laughter edged over his voice, it's smoother and not as boisterous as the sounds that come from her cousin when he is doubled over in delight, laughing at something she probably would think stupid or unladylike (as her mother might say). "Certainly not chess right?"

"Chess?" her mouth tastes the foreign word like odd honey.

He gives the slightest shake of his head, she looks on curiously, his body turns to her, the head, the face.

"Shougi."

She giggles, "Of course not. We only have ourselves."

"What do you have in mind?" bright eyed, that's how they are now as all children are at the prospect of a game, just to keep this wait at bay, a wait that never meets an end, Lelouch briefly thought that walking would be better, before the land turns completely soft but he shuffles the thought away, the happy anticipating expression of this small Japanese girl showing it the back door.

Lelouch continues, "Perhaps, shiratori?"

Her mouth rounds into an 'o', surprise instantly marking her features and twisting her brow in a way his own dares not mimic though his eyes remember it.

"You know it? That game-" her hands clap, the sound exactly like her beaming smile.

"Is it so surprising?"

"It is!"

Silence for fifty two seconds as they bask in this fact, as if it is a world changing ideal. That one culture can know of an aspect of another culture. Kaguya's fingers tap against the other as she tries to think of a Britannian game that she knows about but cannot find one (was chess one? He had said it earlier... it did not count) she knew they played with cards too...

"Shall I start?"

She'd turned away; she looks back to him again, back to that smile that made her heart flutter oddly. But how nice and lovely and daring it was! The rain pitter patters on the top of the enclosure. He shifts that white paper bag in his arms again.

"No," her hands settle on her hips, it looks silly now (as it may less when she becomes older), he thinks she may have winked at him, "I'll go first."

The first word.

"Mizuke."

She wonders what's in it. That bag.

"Keizai."

"Ikasama."

"Masshiro." ("Pretty! Like snow, that word is perfect don't you think?")

"Rongi."

"Girei."

"Itsudemo."

"Monko."

"Kosame."

She turns, ebony hair swaying with its movement, titling as he chuckles. One hand up to his mouth, and returning down again. "But we're not having a light rain at all."

The pitter-patter has turned to a drumming as it continuously poured. Seeping into what seemed everything. The noise of it seeps into their ears.

"No, we're not," she replies, laughing as well.

--

Four hours and six minutes later since they started waiting for the bus, he opens the bag. Both their feet swaying, lightly kicking on the bench they sat on. The rain not lightening up one bit. It was too dangerous, too dirty to walk now.

It's because her stomach had grumbled.

"Here," he says offering a rice cracker to her, she takes it gratefully, munching.

"I don't have anything to give you if you get thirsty though." His face looks apologetic, she grins around the cracker.

"No problem! If we just get thirsty we can poke our head out in the rain!"

Lelouch would tell her about pollution in the air, but this far up away from the town it may not matter after all. He takes out a rice cracker and eats as well. The glaze is sweet. Kaguya has been taught boys do not like sweet things, "You like..." she does not want to be too direct, in case she will lose her answer.

"This?"

It takes him some time to answer, chewing, swallowing. "My little sister, Nunnally. She quite likes them."

He holds the bag a little more gently.

"But, I like them too."

Kaguya asks if she may have another, he passes another along to her outreached hand.

--

He's able to board the bus when a bus actually comes because fervently Kaguya tells the bus driver that he is her _cousin_ even though from the old lady sitting up front who runs a takoyaki stand, to the mother with a sleeping baby, to the farmer who knows what beef is best to eat during the winter (any kind of beef), and to the gangle of teenagers who smell like smoke all the way in the back- even though they all knew that there was no way Lelouch could be related to the Sumeragi Kaguya, they all shut the hell up because if she said he was they couldn't tell her no.

With her name came power.

Lelouch doesn't smile at her as he gets off the bus, only after, when the windows look fogged and the bus is going off into the distance, she'll be home soon.

It's the only time she's ever abused her power, and she doesn't even wonder why.

(Cause she saw it, his smile. Through the foggy window.)

--

She'll abuse it again when she says.

"Let us try."

When she says.

"We must shoot, to know for sure."

When she follows Zero and doesn't look back.

But looking at him now. White instead of black, familiar eyes, yet unfamiliar mouth. She cannot help but try.

"I have a different answer."

She knows it won't be pure white.

a/n: school tomorrow. I'm so tired. What do you mean I'm supposed to put this on the top before the fic. You wanted spoilers. (lol whut can you have that for a fic. Fic!spoilers? idk it's almost 11pm here. My bed time is 9pm ppl.) just in case you wanted to know the words/didn't know/these prbly mean that: _mizuke_ - "moisture", _keizai_ - "economy" (yeah Lelouch you would use this word), _ikasama_ - "forgery" (Kaguya has to listen to old men talk about stuff a lot, true fact), _masshiro_ - "pure white", _rongi_ - "debate", _girei_ - "protocol", _itsudemo_ - "always", _monko_ - "door", _kosame_ - "light rain".

g'niiiight.


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